Admirers of Senator John

Admirers of Senator John McCain (and Talking Points has to admit he’s one of ’em) will be chagrined to learn that during McCain’s primary campaign in South Carolina last winter his chief campaign strategist was none other than Richard Quinn, long-time editor of the oft-mentioned Southern Partisan magazine.

Outraged?

Well, turns out so was George W. Bush!

While Bush was fending off criticism for going to that rally at Bob Jones University his campaign lashed out at McCain for being so low as to associate with the likes of Richard Quinn and his magazine the Southern Partisan.

Take a peek at this clip from a February 18th, 2000 article in the Washington Post:

Bush campaign spokesman Ari Fleischer called Quinn’s writings “offensive,” adding that McCain “was very critical of one of Bush’s supporters who said something he believed was out of line. Now it will be interesting to see how he reacts now that it is one of his supporters who has said something that is very out of line.”

Now here’s where the story gets interesting. It was common knowledge at the time that the Bush folks were circulating copies of the Southern Partisan and trying to get reporters interested in pillorying McCain’s outrageous behavior. (Maybe they even circulated the copy with John Ashcroft’s interview in it?).